Paid research sites compared: 13 platforms by their own official data

How we compared

We did not take numbers from reviews or other people’s roundups. For every platform we opened the participant help centre or the tester page and wrote down what the platform itself says: format, pay, payout method, requirements. The check date is 11 September 2026; links to every page are at the end of the article.

Where a platform does not publish a number, we say so. That is information too: a platform without a published minimum rate is not worse, but you only learn the amount in a specific invitation.

The comparison table

The "Pay" column shows what the platform publishes officially. For Respondent these are example rates it recommends to researchers, not a guarantee to participants.

For beginners: Prolific, UserTesting, TestingTime

Prolific is the only platform on the list with a published minimum rate: researchers must pay at least £6 or $8 an hour, and £9 or $12 is recommended. Prolific calculates the rate from the actual median completion time, not from the researcher’s estimate. The catch for Ukrainians: Ukraine is not on Prolific’s country list.

UserTesting accepts people from anywhere in the world, but requires fluent English, French or German and an unpaid practice test. You see what each test pays before you accept it, and the money reaches PayPal about 14 days later.

TestingTime says outright that you need no specific education or work experience; honesty and reliability matter. Most studies take 30 to 90 minutes, and most invitations go to Switzerland, Germany, France, Austria, the UK and the Netherlands.

If you are comfortable on camera: User Interviews, Askable, dscout

User Interviews says more than 5,000 studies launch on the platform every month and the average study pays over $45. It quotes $20–1,500+ for online studies and $40–1,000+ for in-person ones. It is now part of UserTesting.

Askable works in 42 countries and accepts people from age 13, with parental consent for minors. The interface is English only. dscout specialises in diary studies: over several days you capture photos and videos from your life in its app. It needs an iPhone on iOS 14 or later, or Android 8.0 or later.

For professionals: Respondent and CleverX

The highest amounts are paid for expert interviews. Respondent advises researchers to pay professionals at least twice their hourly rate and gives US examples from $100 for a remote interview with an entry-level specialist to $600 with a C-level executive. For a broad audience its example is $90. The platform operates in more than 175 countries, but most of its members are in the United States.

CleverX matches participants by industry, expertise and job title. Earnings land in a wallet, from which you can withdraw to PayPal, a bank account, a Visa card or gift cards. For interviews and product tests it usually pays within 48–72 hours; surveys can take weeks.

For testers: uTest, Tryber, Testbirds

uTest pays for approved bugs, test cases, usability surveys and bonuses. The rate depends on project complexity and the value of the bug, and higher-rated testers are paid more. If a company marks you as a favourite tester, you earn an extra 5% on every future bug you submit for it.

Tryber is the community of the company UNGUESS: more than 270,000 active members in over 150 countries. To receive campaigns you first complete the basic Tryber course. Testbirds, another European crowdtesting platform, announces on its own site that it has been acquired by UNGUESS. Neither Tryber nor Testbirds publishes rates on its public pages.

For gamers and microtasks: PlaytestCloud, Clickworker

PlaytestCloud pays for game testing: typically $5–9 for a 15-minute playtest with a survey. The onboarding test is unpaid, commentary is in English, and there is no payout threshold. Most playtests are for players in the USA, the UK and Canada.

Clickworker is not research but microtasks: AI training, surveys, voice and video recordings, photo tasks. You see the amount before you start, and payouts are weekly. The platform sometimes switches off registration for certain countries.

How long each format takes and what it pays

The most detailed ranges by format are published by User Interviews. It is one platform’s data, but it shows the logic well: the longer the study and the rarer your profile, the higher the pay.

How to choose: three questions to ask yourself

Do not sign up everywhere at once. Answer three questions and the list shrinks to two or three platforms.

• where do I live? Check the country in the platform’s help centre before signing up: Prolific, User Interviews and Askable, for example, do not accept participants from Ukraine
• how will I get paid? Without PayPal most platforms drop out, leaving Payoneer on uTest and Clickworker and Tremendous cards
• what can I do? English opens UserTesting, work experience opens Respondent and CleverX, an eye for detail opens uTest and Tryber

Safety rules the platforms spell out themselves

A few warnings repeat across different help centres, and they are worth knowing before your first study.

• get paid only through the platform: Respondent explicitly forbids accepting money from a researcher outside the platform
• never pay anything yourself: PlaytestCloud warns that a payment prompt inside a game during a test is a real payment, and it will not be refunded
• one account and your real country: PlaytestCloud bans multiple accounts and software that masks your location
• honest screener answers: TestingTime may block payouts and delete your profile for deliberately false information

How many platforms to use at once

Invitations arrive irregularly on every platform: TestingTime says earnings will not be enough to live on, and PlaytestCloud says it is not a full-time job. Two or three platforms with different formats therefore give a steadier flow than one.

But each platform means a profile, screeners and its own rules. Three well-filled profiles beat ten sloppy ones, because the profile is what gets you selected. Our catalogue brings studies from several platforms together and shows only the ones you can actually get into.